1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a device for transferring slips of paper from a first rotationally-driven cylinder to a second rotationally-driven cylinder. Each of the cylinders includes a gripper with a controlled, pivotal jaw formed as a strip. The pivotal jaw cooperates with a rigid jaw of the corresponding cylinder. Each cylinder also has a controlled blade that inserts the slips of paper into the opened gripper of the other cylinder. Preferably, the invention is used for transferring bottom caps from the transfer or detaching cylinder of a bag manufacturing machine to an application cylinder that applies the bottom caps to open bottoms of continuously conveyed bags.
2. Description of Related Art
The present invention relates to the application of bottom caps to bags being continuously conveyed via a conveyor line. If such a device is used in a bag manufacturing machine, the bottom cap cannot be transferred from the transfer cylinder to the application cylinder whenever a bag fails to appear. This prevents an unused bottom cap from being delivered to the bag conveyor by the application cylinder and creating an obstruction. A device of this type is disclosed in EP 0,560,066 B1. In that device, if a bag fails to appear, a pincers-like gripper on the transfer cylinder is activated. The gripper takes hold of the bottom cap and transfers the bottom cap to a subsequently arranged separating conveyor for discarding the unneeded bottom cap. In this known device, the transfer and application cylinder are each provided with controlled, pincers-like grippers. Each cylinder is also provided with controlled blades that respectively insert the edge of bottom caps into the opened gripper of the other cylinder.
In operation, if a bag fails to appear at the bottom cap application site, then the bottom cap intended for the missing bag is disposed of by changing the control of the gripper and the blade so that the blade of the application cylinder inserts the bottom cap into the opened gripper of the transfer cylinder. The transfer cylinder then takes hold of the bottom cap and transfers the bottom cap to the subsequently-arranged separating conveyor. This known device is expensive to construct and maintain because the transfer cylinder, as well as the application cylinder, must each be provided with a controlled pincers-like gripper as well as a separately controlled blade that inserts the edge of bottom caps into the opened pincers-like gripper of the other cylinder.